B A R R Y wrote:
Jay Honeck wrote:


I've not quite figured out where the anti-Narco sentiment come from,
but it's almost as insidious as the anti-Microsoft attitudes out there.


I've had several $300 Narco auto-dimming EL displays fail. According to
some very reputable local avionics businesses, Narco isn't easy to deal
with.

"Not easy to deal with" because Narco won't supply them parts or
approved repair manuals. For the owner though, it is a pretty good deal
except you aren't going to drop into a shop and have them fix it while
you wait.

Units sent to Narco for factory repair are brought up to the latest mod
level and are 100% checked before they are returned to you. After the
repair, the whole unit is warrantied for 90 days. If anything breaks on
it during the warranty period (anything, not just the repair), they fix
it at no additional cost. As an owner, you can take comfort in knowing
it is fixed correctly, completely calibrated to factory spec, and
brought up to the latest revision. The shop rate is, I believe,
$105/hr, which is a little higher than most avionics shops, but they
also generally fix it in fewer hours. You can also get the unit
evaluated before it is repaired for a flat fee of (IIRC) $105, then if
you decide to repair it, that evaluation fee is applied toward the
repair. You also have the option of trading it in for another radio,
although the trade-in terms are not all that generous. I haven't found
the factory service to be hard to deal with at all as an owner.

On the other hand, I've got some horrendous stories dealing with
avionics shops that applied bandaid fixes to radios, and the warranty
most shops I've dealt with offer covers only the repair that they did,
and expires more or less as soon as your wheels leave the ground. From
the avionics shop's perspective, yeah, Narco gave them a raw deal and is
hard to deal with because they won't let the avionics shops service the
radios. The Narco radios are not any worse than other radios of the
same vintage. Face it, aircraft panels are a harsh environment for
avionics, and after being in there for 20 years you are bound to have
problems. Buying 20-30 year old used equipment, even if the seller
tells you it is like "now" is a crap shoot. You can't blame the
manufacturer for that.